


I'm Just Fine

by walkthegale



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Huddling For Warmth, Kissing, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 13:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16198643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkthegale/pseuds/walkthegale
Summary: It's freezing and it's snowing, and Beau is not made for this, but damned if she’s going to admit it.





	I'm Just Fine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [romnovs (tashatops)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tashatops/gifts).



> Epic thanks to cosmic_llin and silly_cleo for reading this over for me and being awesome betas!

It’s fucking freezing.

Beau pulls her cloak tighter around herself and hunches her shoulders against the wind. The first flakes of snow an hour ago were pretty despite the chill in the air, but the flurry turned into almost a blizzard and Beau is not made for this shit.

Up ahead, a darker shape in the blur of white, Yasha makes an expansive gesture, and Beau and Jester stop with her at the side of the road where she’s found a shallow cave that will provide some protection from the elements. The three of them are meant to meet up with the others in town in a little under two days, and they might still make it, but it’s obvious they’re going to have to wait out this snowstorm first unless they want to get completely lost.

Yasha’s been gathering wood while they walked, keeping it dry as best she can, and she sets about making a fire while Beau and Jester slump in exhausted heaps on the blessedly dry rock floor. It’ll be fine, they tell each other. They’ll stay here for the night, and by morning the snow will have stopped and they’ll be on their way.

Beau got a rabbit with a throwing star earlier on, so they cook that over the fire, and the hot food helps, along with a share of some pastries that Jester produces from who knows where. Beau even volunteers for first watch, and she sits down by the cave entrance with her back to the flames while Jester and Yasha lay out their bedrolls behind her and settle down for the night.

It’s still fucking freezing.

Beau’s cloak is damp from the snow, and there’s an icy draft coming in from the darkness outside the cave, and the fire at her back doesn’t seem to be making any difference. Fuck. She jumps to her feet and marches back and forth for a while, which helps a little. Jester and Yasha look so cosy in their bedrolls, damn it.

Splitting her time between pacing the width of the cave, and huddling as close to the flames as she can manage without actually risking setting her hair on fire, Beau passes her watch. It drags on interminably, the ceaseless cold and the infinite dark, and by the end she doesn’t remember how to stop shaking, but eventually it’s done, and she stumbles over to somewhere in Yasha’s vicinity and pokes her in the shoulder with her staff from a distance. Several close calls on the end of a startled Yasha’s sword have taught Beau a valuable lesson about waking sleeping women who could kill you with their little finger.

“Hey,” Beau says, once Yasha has finished sitting bolt upright and instantly assessing the area for danger. “All good. It’s your turn.” The words come out with a bit of a stammer as she tries to keep her teeth from chattering.

Yasha nods and climbs out of her bedroll, settling herself by the fire as Beau gratefully dives into her own, covering herself in as many layers of blankets as she can muster. It’s not nearly as many as she’d like.

It takes a few minutes for Beau to realise that she still can’t stop shaking. The cold has soaked right down into her very bones, and she can’t seem to get warm at all. She wriggles about a bit, tries to rub her feet together, tries sticking her hands into her armpits, but it’s not really fixing the issue.

After a while, Yasha glances over at her. “You ok?” she asks.

“Me? Yeah, fine, t-totally fine.” Beau watches Yasha for a moment, looking in vain for signs of shivering. “Bit cold out there tonight.”

Yasha shrugs. “It’s ok with the fire.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, absolutely. Yes, the fire definitely makes it fine.” Beau hunches further down into her bedroll. She’s pretty sure she can’t feel the tip of her nose any more. She wonders vaguely whether one of Jester’s healing spells would fix frostbite.

The thing is that the more time passes, the more Beau seems to be shaking, the more the creeping chill from the ground seems to sneak in through her layers. Surely she’ll warm up any minute now. She definitely will. She tries to subtly shift herself nearer to the fire.

“Are you sick, Beau?”

Damn it, she’s woken Jester. “Nah. Nah, I’m fine, go back to sleep.”

There’s silence for a moment, then Jester’s voice again, full of concern. “You don’t seem really fine. If you’re sick you should tell me and I can probably heal you.”

“I’m not sick, Jester, ok?”

“Then what is the matter?” Beau doesn’t reply, so Jester continues. “Are you cold?”

Shit, why can’t Jester just let it go? Beau tries turning the question back on her. “Are _you_ cold?”

“Not really, but I don’t really get cold, you know.”

Fucking tieflings. “Yeah, no, uh, me neither.”

There’s the sound of shifting fabric, and then Jester is crouching next to Beau. She puts one hand on Beau’s cheek, and damn, it’s really warm. Beau narrowly avoids making a plaintive noise when Jester takes it away again.

“You’re lying, Beau, you are really cold.” Jester’s voice has taken on a stern note that Beau likes a little more than she’d care to admit.

“I mean, I guess. Maybe a little.” A full body shiver runs through Beau, making her teeth rattle.

Jester stands up. “Ok, we’re going to fix this. Hey, Yasha? Can you come help me, please? Beau is really cold, and I don’t want her to get hypothermia and die or something.”

Beau’s cheeks flame red with a heat she didn’t know her body still possessed. “I’m really ok…”

“Shut up, Beau.” Jester drags her bedroll over next to Beau’s, directing Yasha to do the same on Beau’s other side and Beau suddenly has a terrible premonition about what Jester has in mind, but she has no idea how to stop it. Jester is in full flow, pointing and bossing Yasha around, Yasha complying meekly. “Ok, now Yasha, you’re going to lie down there, and I’ll lie down here, and we’ll both keep Beau warm.”

Yeah, Beau was right. And she thinks this might actually kill her.

Jester lies down in front of Beau, sliding under the edge of Beau’s blanket, and tugging her own blanket to cover them both. She cuddles Beau into her soft warmth, and the immediate flood of relief is so strong that Beau can’t even find words to protest.

“You are shaking so much,” Jester says softly. “You should have told us.”

There’s movement behind her, and Beau is suddenly, painfully aware of Yasha lying down behind her, of her arm wrapping around Beau’s waist, and it’s long enough that it reaches all the way over to Jester as well. Yasha curves herself around Beau, pulling her in against the length of her body, so that Beau is tucked firmly in between her and Jester, with not an inch of space to spare.

Yeah. Yeah, Beau is absolutely sure that this is definitely going to kill her.

But she’s also so goddamn _warm_ now. The heat of Jester and Yasha’s bodies is seeping into her, her constant shudders are gradually calming, the feeling is coming back into her fingers and toes, painful but welcome.

“Thanks,” she finally manages to mumble from where her face is pressed alarmingly close to Jester’s breasts.

“You are welcome Beau,” Jester tells her. “This is pretty nice anyway, isn’t it Yasha? It’s a good thing no one else can see us right now. They might think we were _up to something_. Have you ever been in bed with two hot ladies before, Beau?”

Beau didn’t think her face could physically get any redder, but it turns out she was wrong.

Behind her, she feels Yasha move, and it takes her a moment, but then she realises that Yasha is laughing. Beau can feel it through her whole body, and then Jester starts giggling too, and Beau can’t help but laugh with them.

When their laughter dies down, Beau finds that Jester’s face is very, very close to her own. She looks into Jester’s eyes and realises that something is happening here. Something that maybe she can’t turn back from, even if she wanted to.

And then, very, very quietly, almost in a whisper, Jester asks, “Can I kiss you, Beau?”

Beau finds herself nodding, and then Jester’s mouth is on hers, hot and soft and gentle but demanding, just like she would have expected of Jester. For a moment, Beau is utterly swept away by the kiss, but a slight movement of Yasha’s arm around her brings her firmly back.

She opens her eyes and Jester is grinning at her, and then, _oh fuck_ , and then Jester leans across Beau’s shoulder and kisses Yasha, with Beau pinned in between them, and Beau thinks this might be the weirdest and hottest thing that has ever happened to her.

When Jester pulls back from Yasha, Beau’s brain feels a bit like it’s been turned upside down and shaken, and there’s really only one thing she can do. So she does it. She twists her body around until she’s facing Yasha, and she’s not sure if she kisses Yasha or if Yasha kisses her, but she’s pretty sure she never wants it to stop. And then Jester starts pressing little kisses to Beau’s neck, and Beau was wrong a moment ago, _this_ is the hottest thing that has ever happened.

Yasha pulls away and holds Beau’s gaze for a long moment. “This is ok?” she asks.

Beau has no idea how to answer, so she nods vehemently.

On her other side, Jester laughs again. “I think Beau thinks it’s ok, Yasha,” she says, and kisses Beau’s cheek.

Yasha isn’t finished. She looks hard at Jester. “And you? This is ok for you?”

In reply, Jester gives Yasha a lingering kiss. Beau has just discovered that she loves kissing Jester, and that she loves kissing Yasha, and neither of those things are a surprise to her, but the thing she’s having trouble wrapping her head around is how much she also loves watching them kiss each other. They both look so fucking beautiful. And so happy.

Outside the cave, the snow falls and the wind howls and the world is frozen and terrible, but here Beau is warm and safe, and she suddenly has a million excellent ideas for things they could do to pass the time.

The blizzard can last as long as it wants.


End file.
